(Bloomberg) — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is preparing to give a major economic address next week, according to people familiar with the plans, the latest in a series of measures to steady his shaky 2024 presidential bid.
The DeSantis campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
DeSantis and his wife, Casey, have been frustrated and want the campaign reoriented by September when they think Americans will start to tune into the 2024 presidential race, said one fundraiser who attended the Park City retreat.
On Tuesday, his campaign initiated a second round of staff cuts and eliminated roughly two dozen jobs. In total, the campaign has 38 fewer staffers than it did two weeks ago before its cash crunch became public with a federal campaign filing.
This week, the governor is making fundraising sweeps through the South with events in Chattanooga, Knoxville and Nashville, Tennessee.
The campaign is still working out the time and location for the economic speech, but it will be sandwiched in between a slate of fundraisers in the Midwest the week of July 31, including ones in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Kansas City, Missouri; and Wichita, Kansas.
In talking points distributed to donors in recent days, the DeSantis campaign called the economy and China two of the four central themes moving forward and indicated the economic message would zero in on inflation, government spending and domestic energy production.
In addition to campaigning and fundraising, the governor has been working on preparations for the first Republican debate on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee. DeSantis personally assured donors in Park City that he was taking the prep work seriously, and his team has been devising one-liners as well as brainstorming themes and policy areas they want to hit from the stage.
They are preparing for potentially sharing the stage with Trump, who hasn’t committed to attending the debate due to his wide polling lead, as well as the possibility that he skips the event entirely.
Since DeSantis’s official campaign launch, his team has been meeting at least once a week for debate prep, said people familiar with the schedule. Senior staffers involved include manager Generra Peck, pollster Ryan Tyson, policy guru Dustin Carmack and Jason Johnson, who worked for US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and helped him prepare for the presidential debates in 2016.
